Los Angeles police shot and killed an armed suspect Saturday in South Los Angeles following the pursuit of what was believed to be a stolen-vehicle, authorities said.

The events leading up to the shooting began about 1:40 p.m., when officers spotted a car with paper plates and tried to stop it, thinking the vehicle may have been stolen, Sgt. Barry Montgomery told reporters at 108th Street and Western Avenue.

When the driver of the vehicle failed to stop, officers began a pursuit, Montgomery said.

A passenger got out of the car near Western and 106th Street, and officers ran after him, Montgomery said. They chased him toward the back of a house on 107th Street, Montgomery said, where police shot him.[...]Relatives identified him as Carnell Snell Jr. and said the 18-year-old was killed on the same street where he lived.

Police have not said what exactly happened in the moments before the shooting, citing the early stages of the investigation. Montgomery said a weapon was found at the scene, but did not elaborate.

A teenager shot and killed by Los Angeles police was identified by his family as Carnell “CJ” Snell Jr., according to ABC 7.

Police said they recovered a gun at the scene and that Snell was armed when he was shot during a foot chase, but family members and a former teacher contended Snell was shot in the back, perhaps as many as five times, and that he had his hands up. These details, which spread quickly on Twitter the night of October 1, sparking outrage, were unconfirmed.

The Los Angeles Times and other news outlets reported that Snell was 18. The authorities had not officially confirmed his identity or age yet on the evening of October 1.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Twenty one people were arrested over the weekend in protests in Los Angeles and El Cajon, California over fatal shootings of two black men by police that stoked concerns about racial bias in U.S. policing.

Seventeen people were taken into custody in El Cajon on Saturday night and early on Sunday, most of them for failing to obey orders to disperse after an "unlawful assembly" order was declared, said Lieutenant Rob Ransweiler of the El Cajon Police Department.[...]In Los Angeles, four people were arrested on Sunday night during protests over the shooting one day earlier of 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr. following a car and foot chase that began when officers suspected the vehicle he was riding in was stolen.

The Los Angeles Police Department has said that a handgun was recovered from the scene.